Small Changes = Long Term Success

When starting a diet many people think they have to make a drastic change to their eating habits. So, they cut out all sweets or all of a particular food group (carbs usually) or they trade every little thing they eat in for it's lowest calorie, lower fat, lower carb, counter parts. While this drastic change may produce big results it's a hard lifestyle to keep up. Can you really go the rest of your life without ever eating another sweet? Another carb? Or eating only the low fat or no fat version of a certain food? Don't get me wrong if you can stick to a diet like this then yes, you will lose weight and probably fast. But the downfall of this type of diet plan is that the moment you eat something that you have deemed as forbidden it gives you a sense of failure which often leads to the silly rational of "Well I ruined my diet for today so I may as well eat whatever I want the rest of the day." Both of these ideas are what kill most diets.

While there are people out there that would argue that your body needs that drastic shock to it's system to really get you on track, the fact is small changes are easier to stick to and are more likely to produce long term results. Let me give you some examples. The first thing most people do when they start a diet is to try to eat more salads. This is a great idea. Salads are packed with nutritious veggies and are pretty low calorie compared to what you might have eaten before. So let's say you have decided to eat a salad for lunch every day instead of whatever your normal lunch time routine is. That's great! But many people then take it a step further and decide they will only eat low fat or no fat dressing on their salad as well. If you like the taste of low fat or no fat dressings (and there are some very tasty ones out there) this is great, but if you really like the taste of regular ranch dressing then don't make that sacrifice yet. You've already made your first health choice. If it takes eating regular ranch dressing on your salad for you to enjoy it and stick with it, then go for it! The few calories in the 2 Tbsps of Ranch dressing that you put on your salad are far less calories and fat then what would have been in that burger in fries, so you are still making a healthier choice.

If you are changing your diet to lose weight and not just to be healthier and you hit a platue in you weight loss then, you can switch to the low fat or no fat ranch dress to give you a little more edge.

My point is proper diet and nutrition isn't an all or nothing concept. The most successful dieters are the ones that understand they can eat anything they want just in the proper portions because they aren't turning any one type of food into the temptation of the "Forbidden Fruit." Another thing to keep in mind is that your body wants to stay nourished. If denied a certain food group for a long period of time it will start to crave the food group and you may find yourself binging on it. And that isn't good either.